IBM Cloud woos financial services with developer tools

Cognitive, blockchain, analytics technologies are available for rapid development and deployment.

IBM has introduced a new developer cloud as part of its Watson platform, allowing fintechs, banks, wealth management and insurance firms to develop financial services apps.

The launch of the IBM Cloud for Financial Services is designed to provide the necessary building blocks for the creation of financial services apps on the IBM Cloud.

Developers will now have access to application programming interfaces (APIs), data, and content to build and monetise cognitive-enabled apps.

Currently being beta tested, developers will also have the ability to create customer insights, regulatory compliance analytics, security, privacy and compliance readiness to help lower the time required for development and testing.

IBM said the new tools can simplify the time-consuming tasks of selection, mapping and data integration, enabling developers to use its services or integrate them with their own data.

The company says that over 100,000 individual and enterprise developers from the financial services industry currently depend on it for insight and support.

IBM SVP for industry platforms Bridget van Kralingen said: “Our experience across financial services and in the commercial deployment of AI with enterprise and start up builders has informed these new tools.

“We’re excited to see how they put them to work to quickly create the latest solutions powered by cognitive computing and blockchain for everything from new payments directives support, and even regtech solutions.”

As part of its ongoing efforts to strengthen its customer base in the fintech space, IBM developed the Singapore FinTech Hub with the support of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the central bank of Singapore. The hub is linked to Big Blue’s financial services developer cloud.

The company’s Business Partner programme is also being expanded to offer further benefits and support for partners aligned with the financial services industry.

IBM Business Partner Solution Hubs located in London, New York, San Francisco, and several parts of the world will provide direct access to the company’s expertise to help partners commercialise financial services solutions with its cognitive and cloud technology.